This road served as a route of march and troop supply on the Texas frontier. It followed in part pre-Columbian Indian trails and the Old Chihuahua Trail running from San Antonio to El Paso and Mexico. In the 1840s it was extended to the Gulf Coast port of Indianola, where imported goods from the United States and Europe arrived and were freighted out for exchange in Chihuahua for silver and gold ore, leather goods, and other products. In 1848 its water holes and camp sites were marked when the road was re-charted for U.S. troops sent to protect the Texas frontiers from Indian invasions. Army posts built along it included Fort Clark between San Antonio and Del Rio in 1852, Fort Davis in the Davis Mountains in 1854, Camp Lancaster at this site, which became Fort Lancaster in 1856, and Camp Hudson and Fort Stockton founded in 1857 and 1859. Heavy army traffic gave the trail the new name Government Road. Pioneer settlers, adventurers, California-bound gold seekers, and even camel trains in government service traveled it despite frequent encounters with Comanches, Apaches, Kiowas, and other Indians. The Army eventually stationed troops in a continuous picket line from San Antonio to El Paso, but relatively safe passage was not assured until 1870.